“All Bel creations have both a real honesty in their straightforward presentation and engagement with the audience … [this piece] shows us dance from the inside.” —New York Times
Minneapolis, October 13, 2011— Known for conceptual, often slyly hilarious choreographic work, Jérôme Bel returns to the Walker with a beautifully spare and poetic evening of movement and autobiographical storytelling written and performed by Cédric Andrieux but shaped and directed by Bel on Friday–Saturday, October 28–29, at 8 pm in the William and Nadine McGuire Theater. Providing a behind-the-scenes look at Andrieux’s career, from his training in France to many years as principal dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the Lyon Opera Ballet, the performance integrates spoken English with excerpts by renowned choreographers such as Cunningham and Trisha Brown. This work opens wide the sometimes mysterious world of dance, offering insights into Cunningham’s visionary concepts as well as the iconic image of the individual dancer. Cédric Andrieux is a part of the celebration The Next Stage: Merce Cunningham at the Walker.
Cédric Andrieux started dancing in Brest (France). He studied at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse of Paris (1993-1997). In 1997, he joined the Jennifer Muller company in New York for a year. From 1999 to 2007, he was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He also worked with RoseAnne Spradlin, Chantal Yzermans, and was part of the New York cast of Alain Buffard’s Mauvais Genre. From 2007 to 2010 he danced at the Lyon Opera Ballet.
Support for Cédric Andrieux provided by Producers’ Council members Sage and John Cowles.
Tickets to Cédric Andrieux are: Thursday, $16 ($12 Walker members)
and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600.
Balcony Bar
The upper balcony of the McGuire Theater is the place to meet the artist, talk about the show and enjoy a drink and snacks. Open prior to and after the performances of Cédric Andrieux.
Related Events
Exhibition: Dance Works I: Merce Cunningham/Robert Rauschenberg
The extraordinary partnership between two legendary artists is the foundation for this installation of backdrops, props, and costumes created for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC). Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) and Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), who repeatedly reshaped dance and visual art during their lengthy careers, collaborated on over 20 dance works between 1954 and 1964, a key period for both. Dance Works I features enormous curtains painted by Rauschenberg for one of Cunningham’s dance pieces that frame other rarely seen works he made for the stage, including large-scale sculptural objects that lend new perspective to his famous “combines” of the 1950s.
Over more than 60 years, Cunningham not only expanded the parameters of dance but also transformed the role of the visual arts within them. The choreographer developed relationships based on free-thinking experimentation and exchange with numerous leading artists, often bringing them into the sphere of dance for the first time. Dance Works I showcases one of the richest examples of this collaborative approach, inaugurating a series of exhibitions exploring Cunningham’s work with visual artists and drawing from the Walker’s 2011 acquisition of more than 150 works from the MCDC archive.
The acquisition and exhibition of works from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company archive is made possible by generous support from Jay F. Ecklund, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation, Agnes Gund, Russell Cowles and Josine Peters, the Hayes Fund of HRK Foundation, Dorothy Lichtenstein, the MAHADH Fund of HRK Foundation, Linda and Lawrence Perlman, Goodale Family Foundation, Marion Stroud Swingle, David Teiger, Kathleen Fluegel, Barbara G. Pine, and the T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2011. Media partner Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.
Dance Works I: Merce Cunningham/Robert Rauschenberg runs November 3, 2011-April 8, 2012
Merce Cunningham Dance Company Legacy Tour
Antic Meet, RainForest, and Pond Way
Friday – Sunday, November 4 – 6
Friday – Saturday, 8pm, $45 ($40 Walker members)
Sunday, 2 and 7pm, $40 ($35 Walker members)
Showcasing three distinct eras of Cunningham’s career, this program features some of the choreographer’s premier collaborations with leading 20th-century visual artists. Robert Rauschenberg created set pieces and props for the absurdist romp Antic Meet (1958); Andy Warhol’s floating Mylar pillows become part of the choreography in RainForest (1968); and the quietly majestic Pond Way (1998) plays out against Roy Lichtenstein’s stunning pointillistic backdrop. The live scores highlight the work of additional collaborators, including John Cage, David Tudor, and Brian Eno.
Gallery Talk
Darsie Alexander and Trevor Carlson
Thursday, November 3, 6 pm, Free
Medtronic Gallery
Exhibition curator Darsie Alexander and Trevor Carlson, executive director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, discuss Cunningham’s association with Robert Rauschenberg, one of the choreographer’s most fascinating, productive, and enduring creative relationships. In addition to covering the nuances of works on display, this talk will engage issues of artistic ambition, personality, and what it means to collaborate.
Talking Dance: Valda Setterfield and Sage Cowles
Sunday, Oct 30, 5:30 pm, $5
The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts
528 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55402
Tickets 612-206-3600 thecowlescenter.org
Join New York–based actor/dancer Valda Setterfield as she shares her history as part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in conversation with Sage Cowles.
Valda Setterfield is a New York based actor/dancer. She danced with Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1965-75 and is a founding member of the Pick Up Performance Company. She received two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessie), the most recent one for outstanding achievement. She played Marcel Duchamp in Bessie/Obie award winning The Mysteries & What’s So Funny? and toured with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. She has worked with JoAnne Akalaitis, Woody Allen, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Caryl Churchill, Graciela Daniele, Richard Foreman, Maria Irene Fornes, Carmen de Lavallade, Brian de Palma, Ain Gordon, David Gordon, Ivo van Hove, Don Mischer, Marie Rambert, Gus Solomons Jr., Jeanine Tesori, James Waring, Robert Wilson, and Mark Wing- Davey, among others.
The Gertrude Lippincott Talking Dance Series is made possible by generous support from Judith Brin Ingber.
Master Class with Valda Setterfield
Monday, Oct 31, 10 am, $5
The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts
Setterfield will teach a class investigating Merce Cunningham’s back warm up exercises. She began studying with Cunningham in 1958. At that time Merce taught all the classes. The principles of the exercises were clear and unchanging but the variables of tempi, sequence, relationship of arms, and use of space were limitless.
Events with Valda Setterfield are copresented by Link Vostok International East-West Arts Exchange, the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, and the Walker Art Center.
The Walker Art Center’s performing arts programs are made possible by generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through the Doris Duke Performing Arts Fund, the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund, The McKnight Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Producers’ Council
Performing Arts programs and commissions at the Walker are generously supported by members of the Producers’ Council: Russell Cowles; Sage and John Cowles; Robert and Katherine Goodale; Nor Hall and Roger Hale; King’s Fountain/Barbara Watson Pillsbury and Henry Pillsbury; Emily Maltz; Dr. William W. and Nadine M. McGuire; Leni and David Moore, Jr.; Josine Peters; Mike and Elizabeth Sweeney; and Frances and Frank Wilkinson.